February 21, 2014

Dear Sir,

This is becoming ridiculous. In reading today’s Royal Gazette on page 10 ‘Age Concern hopes Budget will not adversely affect seniors’ I cannot help but wonder just HOW the Government is supposed to “right the financial ship of Bermuda” to quote Charles Jeffers. No one, but NO ONE wants to be affected by efforts to balance our budget — not union members, not those who own big cars, not senior citizens who were once upon a time blessed with free vehicle licensing, not this group or that group and on and on and on; NO ONE wants to make a sacrifice.

So how does the Government please all of the people all of the time? Most of us agree that sacrifices must be made — but how? Who do we think must make these sacrifices, if not us?

It is always someone else who we think should take the ‘hit’; it is always so much easier to point the finger at others and whimper that the ‘lighting’ should not strike us, because if it does, then that is totally unfair and we have the sad stories and reasons why it is unfair to back up our cries of injustice.

Has anyone noticed that life can be unfair? Forget Governments, you parents or our boss for the moment; life can and often is very ‘unfair’. And who promised us a rose garden? We are so spoiled, we think that life owes us a living! Well, it doesn’t, all the whining in the world cannot change that. Life IS unfair sometimes.

And broken promises? Our lives are full of them. Our last government told its followers that they could get something for nothing — and for a while they did too. Except now comes the payment. We paid into our pensions with promises ringing in our ears and plans in our hearts for a good retirement. Mistakes were made, greed once again reared it ugly head and our dreams lie in tatters.

We were promised more and more medical aid — to win our money and our vote; but finally the honeymoon is over and reality bites us in the ass.

And the illnesses of old age are something that we come to resent and we try to hide behind more and more medical procedures, which cost more and more money and we insist we should not pay more and more for those procedures.

NOTHING IS FOR FREE. If you are told that, then you can bet your last dollar — and win — that that is a lie. The money must come from somewhere and for just about every group of people to say and or demand they should not be ‘touched’, their lives should not be burdened any more, that someone else should be targeted, is unrealistic.

Of course the poor, the struggling, the innocent and the underprivileged deserve our help, our understanding and more than our sympathy. But there will still be times of want and times of tears and tragedy — we cannot insure against any of that, nor can a Government who needs to balance our budget, sprinkle fairy dust or money upon every problem — unless they tax us a hell of a lot more than they do. Nothing is for free.

And no, do not think I am not writing from a privileged vantage point. I am in my 70th year, I have no pension to look forward to, I have no savings, I count my pennies rather than my dollars, I ride a scooter rather than a car — and no, the leg I smashed years ago does not like the rain and wet, riding with the wind in my face, and yes life has more than dumped on me big time, and is about to do it again when the new budget comes out — and no, I will not like it. Fair? It has nothing to do will fair; we are in a fix, folks; we are in trouble. To get out of it, ALL of us will have to make sacrifices, tighten our belts and bite the bullet.

Sincerely,

Mark Emmerson